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Give state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale credit for an exquisite sense of timing. His call to legalize and tax “recreational” use of marijuana comes at a time when state legislators crave alternative sources of revenue to help address an accumulated $3 billion deficit.

Lawmakers, after all, already are addicted to vice as a primary source of state revenue. State-sanctioned casino gambling produced about $1.2 billion in state tax revenue last year, and legislators likely will expand that enterprise onto the internet and into fantasy sports in quest of even more vigorish.

In terms of revenue, DePasquale makes a powerful case. He noted that marijuana taxes in 2016 produced $220 million for Washington, $129 million for Colorado and $65.4 million for Oregon. That does not include state and local law enforcement cost-savings. He did not project potential revenue for Pennsylvania, which is more populous than all three of the states he cited. It has other demographic differences that could mitigate the potential revenue amount, particularly its higher average age.

Potential revenue also is not the only issue. Pennsylvania also has practical and cultural issues to consider.

Authorizing the use of medicinal marijuana, for example, should have been a no-brainer, but lawmakers debated it for years. And even after approving it, they established a schedule that won’t allow full implementation until next year.

And who would sell “recreational” marijuana? Given that the state government claims that it alone can be trusted as the sole wholesaler and primary retailer of alcoholic beverages other than beer, who else would lawmakers trust to sell pot?

The Legislature also has conservative Republican majorities in both houses. They would be unlikely to make state law any more contradictory with federal law, especially as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions vows to step up marijuana enforcement.

Yet those lawmakers are loath to raise existing taxes, or to impose new taxes on their favored special interests, especially the gas industry. They might be tempted, as they were with gambling, to let people pick their poison as long as they pay the state for it.

Legislators should resist that temptation. After blithely relentlessly expanding gambling without regard for the social and economic dysfunction it fosters, they should be careful with marijuana. The best course is to monitor not just the revenue stream in states that have approved widespread pot use, but to assess the social consequences.

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